The Solution to Building a Single Cross-Media User Experience

In the early days of online development, your biggest worry was whether your site or app would work across different browsers. Today, you need to worry about how your site or app will look on multiple devices. Once, this was only concerned developers creating apps for mobile phones. But now developers creating a web page need to know how it looks and operates in the mobile world.

Many sites and apps aren’t optimized for mobile or tablet screens. To avoid that conundrum, you need to develop your site to be “finger first,” says Chris Courtney, VP of Product for Shortlist. Developing the UX/UI for the finger starts you off in a much better spot when optimizing for other devices, the inevitable next step. When you develop the interface to work with touch, users don’t need to learn a new navigation experience as they move from one device to the next.

Don’t Just Retrofit

Step beyond the obvious desire to just convert your website or app for mobile devices. Think about where people are, their needs, and how they might use your product when they’re out and about.

For example, RedEye is a print publication in Chicago that’s distributed and read on public transit. Instead of simply creating a news app for the phone, RedEye developed a public transportation app with train arrival times and “missed connections” that you can post just like people do on Craigslist, says Jonathan Ozeran, Mobile technology Strategist for Lextech Global Services. It’s a good application, and is worth taking a look at.